In the manufacture of cigarettes, the shredded cigarette filler is provided by shredding the laminae portion of tobacco leaves. As an adjunct and preliminary to shredding the laminae, it is necessary to separate the laminae from the stems and large veins or mid-ribs of the tobacco leaves. This generally is done by subjecting the cured tobacco leaf to a threshing operation which breaks up the tobacco leaves rendering them into a lighter laminae fraction and a heavier stem and/or vein or mid-rib fraction. It is then necessary to separate the threshed tobacco leaves into these two respective fractions so that the laminae readily can be incorporated into the cigarette manufacturing process. Heretofore the separation of the heavier fraction from the lighter fraction has involved utilization of a complicated processing operation including screening, etc. In addition to the fact that such prior known operations do not always successfully completely separate the stems and mid-ribs parts from the laminae, the processing operations require expenditure of a significant amount of energy. It is accordingly desirable that a method and apparatus be provided which effectively separates the tobacco leaf laminae from the remaining components of the tobacco leaf and at the same time does so with a minimum of handling of the tobacco mixture and requiring considerably lesser amounts of energy than heretofore required.